Career Fair Led to Two Dream Job Offers for Alumna

Alumna Jennifer Dossett Billings (MAIPS ’12) in Monterey.

January 15, 2013 - 12:00am

The Monterey Institute Career Fair has been steadily growing and expanding over the last few years, with new employers every year joining the large group of “repeat customers” excited to recruit MIIS graduates.

Jennifer Dossett Billings (MAIPS ’12) was working on her last credits for a degree in International Policy Studies with a specialization in development last February and “did not feel strongly about attending the career fair.” But her friend and fellow MIIS alumna Naomi Arnold, who landed a job with Apple at the MIIS Career Fair the previous year, told her: “Go. Even if you think you won’t get anything out of it. You have to go.“ Or as Jennifer interpreted those words: “Get over yourself and just try it.” Either way, it turned out to be great advice.

“I only spent one hour at the Career Fair,” Jennifer says, though she adds that she did prepare by attending the information sessions offered by the Center for Advising and Career Services (CACS), polishing her resume, printing business cards and practicing her “90-second” pitch – “who I am, what I’ve done recently and where I’d like to go.”

She walked out of the fair with an invitation to interview with a risk assessment company the next day. After the interview she was offered a job on the spot, but before she could accept, she was contacted by IHS (an information services and forecasting company) and invited to an interview with them via telephone. To make a long story short, Jennifer ended up accepting a job offer from IHS and started work the following month, in April 2012.

A year later, Jennifer happily reports that she has been promoted and is now a product manager overseeing 500 products internationally, travelling the world and interacting with very interesting people on challenging projects. She strongly encourages other MIIS students to seize on the opportunities provided by the CACS, and wants to pass on the good advice she received about the Career Fair: “Get over yourself and just try it!”